Judgement in bail application soon

The bail application by five accused in the Tshitavha Sambandou and Folovhodwe grave-robbery cases in Vhembe is drawing to an end and the accused could soon know their fate.

The five appeared on Tuesday and their application was postponed to Thursday (yesterday). They have been applying for bail at the Makuya Periodical Court. for the past three weeks

The five, among them two traditional healers, stand accused of violating graves and corpses in the two villages.

Traditional healers Erick Kwinda (49) and Avhapfani Nemungadi (42), Daniel Nephawe (23), Colbert Nemasisi (29) and secondary school pupil Mathadzhila Munyai (20) were all arrested at different locations. Nephawe was arrested in the Western Cape.

 Legal representatives for the accused have already advanced their closing arguments for bail and the State, represented by senior prosecutor Ms Mashudu Nekhumbe, will give closing arguments; the court is expected to give a ruling after that.

The shocking body-parts-from-corpses sale came to light two months ago after a 17-year-old former girlfriend of one of the accused confided to members of the community that she and her boyfriend used to wake up at night to dig up graves for parts that were later sold to traditional healers.

Police dug up five graves and the suspicions were confirmed when some of the body parts were found missing. In one of the graves, the head of the corpse was found missing while in some other graves bones were found to be missing.

Adv Patrick Matodzi, who is representing Nephawe, said he was hopeful and confident that his client would be granted bail.

Date:10 November 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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